Ravi Shastri wants NCA to educate young cricketers about doping

Last year after Prithvi Shaw was found guilty of doping, a major furor had broken in Indian cricket regarding the awareness about the subject among the cricketers. Shaw’s was a classic example of what illiteracy about doping can do as he inadvertently consumed a prohibited substance, commonly found in cough syrups sold in chemist shops, which led to his eight-month suspension.

In July last year when the cricketer was charged he had accepted that he consumed the substance without knowing to treat a respiratory tract infection. He further reiterated that it was not taken to enhance his performance in any manner.

“NCA could be the best place to start off”: Ravi Shastri

Meanwhile, Indian men’s cricket team head coach Ravi Shastri has expressed his concern about the subject and said that the young cricketers must be made aware of the nuances of the issues related to doping and how they should deal with them at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.

Shastri wants the cricketers to be taught about things like banned substances, dope tests at the premier cricket institution of India.

“Just like you do it with the anti-corruption unit. Similarly, even in this you have to be very careful because today when you’re not part of the team, suppose you fall sick and you take a medication, say for example, a cough syrup that has a banned substance in that could keep you out of the game for a year or two. So you know, that kind of education at a young age will be very helpful and it should come from the NCA,” Shastri was quoted as saying by Cricket Next.

Besides the issue of doping, the Indian coach has also asked for the NCA to teach about how to deal with financial issues and the media because he feels cricketers nowadays are exposed to a lot of money and limelight at a very young age when they are not fully prepared for all of them.

“NCA could be the best place to start off when it comes to, you know, handling the media, handling finances because at a very young age, they’re exposed to money like no generation of cricket was ever exposed to. It can make your head reel very quickly,” he added.